The self-heeling BIOS is all new. Isn't necessarily defending against real-world attacks, but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

As noted but Marcia, HP is very late to the next-gen firewall game, which has multiple well-regarded players already. HP's play is that IT managers will prefer one throat to choke, and benefit from having a more easy to manage security infrastructure. That's the pitch.

On the threat intelligence sharing front, meanwhile, it's still early days for all concerned, as the yet-to-be-decided MITRE information-sharing standards suggest. Furthermore, there are steep cultural and business barriers today that prevent the easy sharing of threat intelligence. HP is arguably putting a stake in the ground, but whether businesses buy in -- either to its next-gen firewall, or vision for crowdsourced threat intelligence sharing -- remains to be seen.

Our latest survey shows growing demand, fixed budgets, and good reason why resellers and vendors must fight to remain relevant. One thing's for sure: The data center is poised for a wild ride, and no one wants to be left behind.